Stitches
by Dapple-ishh
Summary: How much it takes from having a normal life, to a shattered one? Thanks to the experiments of some scientists, Connor will never be the same again. He runs away, and along the way, he meets Amaya and Greg, two other teens who suffered the same fate as him, together, they must escape from these scientists who want to kill them. Monster AU/Contains Gregonnor, Cameraya and AmaLuna/
1. Prologue

The only thing he wanted was to be far away of that place, he wanted to be alone. His tears going down his face, cold like ice cubes. His legs started to hurt, and in no time, he realized that he was running like an animal. With his hands, the ones he used to use for grab things, on the ground.

His life ruined. Nothing mattered, anything mattered. No one mattered, he knew it. Everyone shattered him, every person he ever met. His family, they shattered him. His chest hurt, he didn't know if was pain of the cold, or pain of how much they hurted him. Or both combined.

People screaming around him, keeping their childs away from him. Men who were with their wives, were throwing things at him, he was a monster in everybody's eyes. The sound of patrols started to sound on his triangular ears, he could sense them, with his only paw, no far away. A group of teens tried to enclose him, but he was smart enough and leaped in an add of a store. He never leaped that high in his life. His short, from happy to broken, life.

At the end of the street he could see the wall that separated the city from the woods. If he just could make it there... he'll be safe there, and not to talk, that far away from the society. The one he wanted to take revenge on, the one that shattered him.

 _The one that make him look like a monster._

Without looking, a motorbike crashed him, making him and the man who was driving it, fall. His chest hurted a lot more, and felt like slipping away for moments. One moment he was looking at pure black, then he was again in the center of the street. With everyone looking horrified, angry, and laughing at him. He could see the police approaching fastly. And he leaped and started to run. Some men enclosed him.

Rage took control over him, and with his only paw, he stroke two of them in the eyes, with his claws. The other two grabbed the injured ones, and he saw the opportunity to run away. And he did so. He was running more fastly than ever, and in minutes, he reached the wall. He looked that the group of men, now much bigger, were running towards him. He looked up, and did what his instincts told him. He jumped, and started to climb. When he was at the top, he jumped on the other side.

He could still hear the screams of the angry people. He started to walk, with a pain on his chest, into the woods. He looked around, and saw that it was full of oak trees. The oaks were pretty twisted, and sometimes their branches reached his sides, touching his fur, and making him hurt. None of the oaks had leaves, since it was winter. Only a few were there, but they were easily blown by the wind.

As he was getting deep in the woods, pine trees and some alders started to appear. The night was starting to fall, and with it, a cold wind. Without looking, he stepped one paw, and felt that the ground didn't go any further, but did go down. He reacted fastly, and stepped back. A ravine was down him, and at the end, there was a lake.

He came back with the purpose to find a place where to sleep, where the cold couldn't reach him. In the way, he started to feel sad again. Now he would be on his comfortable bed, in his house, with a warm blanket over him. His mother would be kissing him on the forehead and saying "Goodnight, sweetie" to him.

Now there was no bed, no mother, no house, no home. There was no one that would say him goodnight, no one would cover him with a warm blanket. No one would see him as normal again.

He saw a hollow tree on the ground, it was big enough for him, and maybe with some bushes, leaves and feathers, he could get a soft bed, or something close to soft. He was surprised of how fast he thought of that. He started to collect everything he had thought of, and with some work (and thin branches) he did a bed for him, or nest for the case. He put his nest inside the hollow tree, and curled in there. He was pretty good protected from the cold wind, and he was pretty warm and comfort.

He looked up on the hole that had the hollow tree. He could see the sky, and the stars. Everything was quiet, except for the sound of the wind, the branches that were being moved by the wind, and the sound of some owls. He leaned his head on the nest, still looking up with his eyes. The stars shined on him, and were reflected on his blue eyes. Making him look like he had a sky full of stars on his eyes.

Thinking on how fast his life went down, he closed slowly his eyes, and drifted into _sleep..._


	2. Chapter 1: What Remains

Chapter 1: What Remains.

 ** _You're not my son! What did you do to him?! Call the police!_**

 ** _Monster! Trap him!_**

Connor opened his eyes suddenly, though the air was cold, some sweat was dropping from his forehead. The nightmare he had the night before was pretty heavy, and the one he had the night before, and the other night, and the other...

He shook his head, it has been a week since he escaped the citizens and went to live in the wild. He looked up, and saw the milky pale color of the dawn. He let a huge yawn, and sat on his nest. The bushes were scattered on the tree, and the feathers were starting to break. He would need to restore his nest with some more feathers and bushes.

He went out of the hollow tree, his current den, and stretched his back. He was adapting to sleep in the tree, but he still woke up with some aches. His roaring belly reminded him how hungry he was, he hadn't eat the last day. Prey was scarce, and in the whole week, the only thing he got to eat was the half of a mouse and some fishes. Now he couldn't eat human food, not that he had some neither.

His belly started to roar again and he set up his mind, and decided to go to the lake; now that it wasn't so frozen, he could go fishing there. He went to the ravine where he almost fall in a week ago, and started to jump down, jumping on rocks, carefully without falling. He stopped and looked down, a fall from there and he would be carrion.

After some minutes more, he made it down, maybe footing on some pointy rocks, but safely. The milky pale of dawn was becoming a little of a silver color, the cold wind told him that probably a blizzard was coming. He made a point on it, and made a note that he should pick more feathers, bushes and leaves on the way back. Maybe some flat tree trunks to put on the hole of his hollow tree, to cover the inside from the upcoming snow.

Shivers ran through his back as he set his paw on the cold water of the lake, he has been walking without notice, and arrived to the lake. He searched for the rock he always sat on to fish, and when he saw it, he ran to it. Climbing on it, he sat and looked down on the water, he already could see the fishes. He licked his lips, and when a fish was close enough to him, with his only paw, he stretched his claws and gave a splash on the water. The fish was in the air, and his instincts told him to jump, and he did.

The fish was going crazy on his mouth, but only for moments before it stopped. Connor left the fish laying beside his legs and looked again in the water. Fish wasn't his personal favorite, but, if he had it, he needed to take advantage of it. Besides, it was easy to get, at least for him. Some memories of when he was still a human came to his head.

 _ **Flashback.**_

 _"Daddy! Daddy! You promised!" He was jumping up and down on the bed of his parents. His father had promised him to go fishing to the lake, and he was making sure that his father was sticking up to their promise. He never fished before, and he was pretty excited._

 _"Connor, it's still early... go back to sleep..." His father's sleepy words wouldn't stop him, he had promised, and they would go._

 _"Then great! Will be the first ones in there, and that means we'll have all the lake for us! C'mon, wake up!" He was shaking his father to death almost. His father rolled and he fell sat on the ground. He bit his tongue as a trickery idea came to his mind._

 _"Daddy, the cat is peeing on the couch!" His father sat instantly and rushed stairs down to see no one on the couch. He looked up to see Connor giggling. His father smiled and go upstairs. He rubbed Connor's hair with his hand. "You surely are trickery, just like your mother." Connor giggled again. "Give me a time to get prepared."_

 _Connor let a scream of triumph and followed his father._

 ** _End of Flashback._**

He felt suddenly lonely and looked at the fishes he had fished. At that moment, he wouldn't know how to fish. But now, if only his father could see him, he'll be proud that he actually fished a decent number of fishes.

Then realization hit him like a lightning. He looked at the fishes. How would he get them over the ravine, to his hollow tree? He looked around searching for something to carry his fish, and saw some leaves on the ground. He could use them to carry his fish, at least two of them. Other two he could carry on his mouth, or grab them with his tail.

He hurried up to take the leaves he needed it, and came back to wrap his fishes. When he was done, he took the other two fishes with his tail, and made his way back to his tree. It was a pain in the tail to climb the ravine with the fishes, but at the end he did it. He needed an easier way back, climbing the ravine always left him exhausted.

When he reached his tree, he left his fishes there, and went out to search for wood. This time he'll eat his fish decently, and not like an animal. Though he was half cat now. On the way, he saw some leaves falling from the trees. Weird. It was winter. At the same time, he saw some red feathers on the ground, and thought it was weird too, there were no birds near... only the ones at the lake, but not this deep in the woods. He ignored it and picked them up, they would be handy afterwards.

He saw a lot of branches at the end of his way, and hurried up so he could pick them up and come back to his tree. It took him some minutes to pick them all, but when he was finished, he noticed that the branches were cracked, like if someone stepped on them. He looked at the tree over him, definitely someone stepped on the branches.

He started to freak out a little, thinking it could be people chasing him, but realized that those branches were pretty high to climb. Unless you're half-cat.

He made his way back, and set up everything. It was more shiny now. _It must be past midday_. How much time it took him to do everything he had done? He now surely was hungry. Once the fire was switched on, with one of the branches that was left, he nailed the fish on the top and put it over the fire.

It felt so... lonely. This is the kind of things he used to do with his family when they went camping. Now he was all alone. He sighed. None of that would ever happen again. He was a monster now, an enemy of society. Everyone feared him, and he was afraid of them. How much he would do to have at least a friend with him, someone to make him company.

Anger took over him. If it wasn't for those scientists, he would be at home, with his family, all sharing a decent meal, all warmly on the living room. Then sadness stroke him like a huge wave. He had no family, when they saw him, they treated him as a monster. His mother couldn't tell it was him, and his father almost kill him.

He started to shake, and then let out a wail to the nothingness. How much he missed his family, his friends. How was he supposed to survive like this? Wasn't it better to be dead than alive? Why would he want to be alive in the first place? To suffer the same thing over and over again?

He remembered his fish on the fire, and saw that it was ready. He took a bite of it, and chewed it. It was more tasty than the other day, surely. Chewing slowly and without energy, he curled himself close to the fire. Where the warm could reach him. Now he had lost his appetite. He left the roasted fish on the leaf and curled himself to a comfortable position to sleep.

"Aren't you gonna eat that? Can I have it?" Alarmed of the sound of a new voice, he jumped, the fur of his back bristled. He looked for the source of the voice, the female voice. He hissed, still looking around.

"Up, grumpy cat." He looked up and saw someone standing on the branch. It took him a while to realize it was a girl standing there.

He growled. "Who are you?" He shouted. "What do you want?" He was alert in case if this girl attacked him. Though, he was half-cat. She was human. Or that was the only thing he could see of her. "Come down and fight me if you dare!"

The girl giggled. "Calm down, grumpy cat. My name's Amaya, and I have already told you what I want. A piece of your fish... please?" Connor looked down at the fish he had left. He shrugged. He nodded and let the girl have it. He was pretty shocked when he saw that the girl extended a pair of huge reddish wings and flew to him. He was speechless.

The girl looked at him amused. "You didn't think I was a human, right? I mean, didn't you saw how high I was?"

She had a point. He looked at where she was before, and realized that it was pretty high. He was slightly embarrassed, but let it pass. He was pretty curious to what happened to her. He saw her taking his fish, and eat it. Now he was hungry again, so he grabbed another and roasted it like he did with the last one. Amaya was looking at him, but he ignored her. They both were eating in silence, not an uncomfortable one, but the contrary.

Once he finished, he stood up and started to lead to his tree, but Amaya's suddenly appearance surprised him. "Where are you going?" She looked at the tree, and then at him again. "You sleep in there? That's why you were collecting my feathers before?" He was surprised to hear that. He remembered the reddish feathers he found. They must have been hers. He nodded. "Did mouses eat your tongue? That's hilarious because you're cat." She giggled.

"No, they didn't. And I'm not a cat..."

Amaya looked at him up and down. "Are you sure?" She asked amused.

"Maybe..." He walked past her and entered in his tree, curled and closed his eyes. He was pretty tired, and it wasn't even night. He did wanted company, but, this was all of sudden. Not to talk that Amaya, was half-bird. Maybe he should talk to her, maybe because she was like him, maybe-

"Is this where you sleep? Is pretty narrow." She was looking inside with her head on the hole of the tree. "You know, it's not nice to leave guests alone." She took her head out of the hole, and Connor emerged from the tree. That kind of thing used to tell him his mother.

"Sorry, not used to have visits." He said, and it was true. He hadn't seen anyone for a whole week, and now that he had Amaya near, he didn't know how to react. Kind of, he hadn't talk to anyone for a while. Being kept in that tiny room, full of unknown faces, with syringes in their hands, and the shriek of pain of cats before their life were taken...

"Are you okay?" He hadn't realized that he was shaking and that his tail had fluffed out. He shivered, the memories of those places were so dark, and so scary... But he wasn't there anymore. There was nothing to worry about. He escaped. Amaya was looking at him, concerned, and curious. And he remembered that she asked him something.

"Yes, sorry." She didn't seem to believe him, but nodded and didn't ask anymore. "My name is Connor... by the way..." She lighted up, and approached to him. She stretched her hand to him, and he saw that she had yellow claws. He stretched his, and shook hers, he smiled. Time passed since he had done that for the last time.

"So, since when are you here? I've been a long time here and I have never seen you." She said.

"Almost a week, I guess. To be honest, I lost the time already. Since when are **_you_** here?" She mentioned before she had been a long time here, and he was pretty curious about how much time.

"Like three years, everyday counted." Three years?! If he was feeling lonely with only a week, how have she must been feeling? "I escaped and came to live here, by choice. It's pretty quiet comparing this with the mess the city and my family were."

"Didn't you felt lonely?" He asked.

"Well, at first yes, I did. But then I met Cameron-"

"Cameron?"

"It's a boy who lives all direct from here. I met him one day when he shoot my wing, he helped me afterwards and didn't tell anyone I ever existed. So we became friends You should meet him. He's a good boy." She said with a smile on her face. And then looked at him. "What happened to you? How did you end up here?"

"Well, I, um... get rejected by my family... because I looked like this..." He looked at the ground, sad. He still missed them, even though they rejected him.

"I mean, before all that." He looked at her, he wasn't ready to tell her that. First, he merely know her, second, it was still hard. He realized that he was looking straight at the ground now, and Amaya was giving him a weird look. He wanted to tell someone, but at the same time no. He went for the second option.

"I prefer not to talk about that..." His ears went down fastly, and he let a little sad "meow" slide from his mouth. Amaya stood up and sat by his side. She stretched one of her reddish and pink wings, and wrapped it around his shoulders for comfort.

"It's okay, sorry if I pushed the theme too fastly. You can tell me whenever you're ready to." Maybe she was trustworthy, but he decided to wait and see if he could trust her. He was about to say "Thanks" but something caught his attention.

His ears were stretched hard, and his tail was twitching. His fur started to fluff out, something was happening, something not good. He sensed danger near, near him, near Amaya.

Amaya's feathers seemed to raise a little, she was aware of the danger too. She was looking desperate around, looking for the source of danger that caught both of them. Then she kept looking one same direction.

Birds flying desparate in the sky caught the attention of both of them. **"Danger, Near, Danger, Lizard, Danger, Shiny, Danger, Man."** This was the first time he actually heard the birds as if they spoke his language. He heard them loud and clear. Their words crushed on him late as he heard shots in the distance. The bushes moved and from them emerged a blonde boy with green eyes... and a lizard tail!

He ran past them, but lowered a little when he noticed them, shocked, he looked back at them and shout. "RUN IF YOU WANT TO LIVE! THEY WANT US, THEY WANT US!" The lizard boy kept running, and he and Amaya looked horrified. Desperate and with fear in their eyes, they started running. After running a little, Amaya lifted up in the air and started to fly away. Connor felt scared, lost again. _I knew it, I shouldn't have trust her! She left me to die!_

Connor kept running, but changed the direction to deviate himself from the way to the lake. He heard a shot and felt pain on his right ear, in matter of seconds blood started to fall in one side of his face, and almost covering his right eye. Someone saw him and shoot him, this was the worst week he ever had. More men were chasing him; prey of panic, he ran faster, but his face hit a stone wall that stretched up, pretty high.

The men enclosed him, this reminded him of the day he was running away from them in the city. He closed his eyes tight, and waited for them to kill him. A man pointed out his gun, and was prepared to shoot. Connor waited for it, but the shot never came. Amaya appeared, she flew faster towards the men, and with her bigs reddish wings, distracted them. She looked at him for some seconds. "Up there, now!" She signaled with her hand.

Connor looked up, and saw someone standing there, he couldn't make who it was, the sun was hitting on his eyes and the only thing he could make was a silhouete. The silhouette stretched its hand and Connor grabbed it. At this moment, Amaya let go of the men, and flew in their direction and helped lift Connor up.

Halfway up, a shot sounded, and Connor's back turned red. The only thing he could feel was pain, he heard Amaya crying his name, and saw her telling the silhouette to help him. His vision was starting to blurr, someone lift him up and carried him away.

Feeling sleepy, the blood on his face finally reached his eye, and his vision became half blurred, half red. He closed his eyes, as someone told him:

"Everything will be okay, don't worry."

But it wasn't Amaya.


End file.
